Laffan, Brigid, Schlosser, Pierre, (2016), “Public finances in Europe: fortifying EU economic governance in the shadow of the crisis”, Journal of European Integration, 8 March The Eurozone crisis resulted in a decisive change of Europe’s fiscal surveillance regime that brought the question of public finance oversight sharply into focus. The Stability and Growth Pact, the fiscal cornerstone of Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), was fortified, expanded and supplemented by the so-called …Read More
The Economic Impact of Selected Structural Reform Measures in Italy, France, Spain and Portugal
European Commission, (2016), “The Economic Impact of Selected Structural Reform Measures in Italy, France, Spain and Portugal”, Institutional Paper 023, April This paper presents a rigorous methodology for analysing the potential impact of structural reforms by looking at actual measures in four Member States (Italy, France, Spain and Portugal). The model simulations show that the selected reform measures examined could have significant economic benefits in terms of GDP and employment. …Read More
Who Reforms for Higher Productivity?
Van der Marel, Erik, (2016), “Who Reforms for Higher Productivity?”, European Centre for International Political Economy, March With weak European growth performance over a longer period of time, it is time to push reforms raising the rate of productivity growth. The EU’s best strategy for it is to cut restrictions for single market trade in the services sector. There are still major restrictions in place and services regulations differ substantially between …Read More
Quarterly Report on the Euro Area
European Commission, (2016), “Quarterly Report on the Euro Area”, Volume 15, No 1, Institutional Paper 024, April Structural reform measures underway in Italy, France, Spain and Portugal could have significant economic benefits and raise GDP, model simulations presented in this edition of the QREA show. Other chapters in this edition look at the effects of population ageing and slowing total factor productivity growth on GDP, inflation and interest rates; and the drivers …Read More
“Social dumping” and posted workers: a new clash within the EU
Vaccarino, Elena, Darvas, Zsolt, (2016), ” “Social dumping”and posted workers: a new clash within the EU”, Bruegel, 7 March European companies often post employees to another EU country to work there temporarily. These ‘posted workers’ must be paid at least the minimum wage of the host country, yet their wages can be lower than the wages of local workers. Now proposals for ‘the same pay for the same work at the same place’ …Read More
Slow Growth Is a Fact of Life in the Post-Crisis World
Blanchard, Olivier, (2016), “Slow Growth Is a Fact of Life in the Post-Crisis World”, Peterson Institute for International Economics, 13 April Once the acute phases of the financial and euro crises were over, it was clear that it would take time for advanced economies to recover. The history of past financial crises gave a clear warning that recovery would typically be long and painful. Today, the scars are largely healed but growth is …Read More
Maximizing Price Stability in a Monetary Economy
Mosler, Warren, Silipo, Damiano B., (2016), “Maximizing Price Stability in a Monetary Economy”, Levy Economics Institute, April In this paper we analyze options for the European Central Bank (ECB) to achieve its single mandate of price stability. Viable options for price stability are described, analyzed, and tabulated with regard to both short- and long-term stability and volatility. We introduce an additional tool for promoting price stability and conclude that public purpose is …Read More
Review of the Role of the EIB Group in European Cohesion Policy
Van der Zwet, Arno, Bachtler, John, Miller, Stephen, Vernon, Phillip, Dozhdeva, Viktoriya, (2016), “Review of the Role of the EIB Group in European Cohesion Policy”, IP/B/REGI/IC/2015-019, March 2016 The aim of this study is to provide a comprehensive analysis and assessment of how the European Investment Bank contributes to the achievement of Cohesion Policy objectives. The study finds that the role of the European Investment Bank in Cohesion Policy increased significantly in the 2007-13 …Read More
Global Crisis in the US vs the Eurozone: Banks and monetary policy
Cukierman, Alex, (2016), “Global Crisis in the US vs the Eurozone: Banks and monetary policy”, VoxEu, 16 April Although it started in the US, the Global Crisis had non-negligible repercussions in Europe as well due to substantial purchases of subprime securities by European banks and financial institutions. Those problems were subsequently amplified by European sovereign debt crises experienced by countries with weak fiscal institutions. Both the Fed and the ECB reacted to …Read More
Shifting the Beveridge Curve : What Affects Labor Market Matching?
Bova, Elva, Tovar Jalles, João, Kolerus, Christina,(2016), “Shifting the Beveridge Curve : What Affects Labor Market Matching?“, IMF WP/16/9, April This paper explores conditions and policies that could affect the matching between labor demand and supply. We identify shifts in the Beveridge curves for 12 OECD countries between 2000Q1 and 2013Q4 using three complementary methodologies and analyze the short-run determinants of these shifts by means of limited-dependent variable models. We find that labor …Read More